GREEN GLAZED POTTERY
Of flaring form with rounded shoulder on a tapering foot with long flaring neck, two wing handles issuing from the shoulder, profusely moulded and decorated under a green glaze with bands containing geometric designs based around eight-pointed stars, palmette motifs, roundels containing flowerheads and large foliate motifs
93 cm high
The present lot is very similar in form and decoration to a vase in the Cadiz Museum attributed to the Almohad period and dated between 1100 and 1199. Vases of this type contained water used to carry out ritual ablutions before prayers. They were designed to sit on a base which would also collect the water which spilled out of the jar. During the second half of the 19th century, spurred on by events such as the Great Exhibition of 1851,
Spanish potters became interested in creating reproductions of historic pieces of pottery. For a further discussion of the topic see Miriam Rosser-Owen, Islamic Arts from Spain, London, 2010, pp. 138-143.
